So this was SplitReaction’s first year at Maker Faire 2010 NYC. We wanted to wow the crowd and build something awesome, a project that would inspire kids to become makers and engineers. Also it had to be fun to build so of course the best thing was a Mega Claw Game. The second we thought of the idea, the nostalgia of numerous rigged items and victorious grabs overwhelmed us.

A claw game was a challenge since it had plenty of electrical work, construction and ideas to present at Maker Faire and for the blog. It was also tough because we wanted to build it bigger than anything we’ve ever worked on, ten feet by ten feet to be exact.

One promise we made to ourselves was to make it fair and for no one to walk away empty handed. Also we wanted a big grand prize that would have a guaranteed winner during the event.

This was a pretty big project with plenty of updates so we’ll try to hit each major milestone in posts with some minor posts in between.

3 Responses to “The Mega Claw”

looking for new ideas for my kids party planning store. I like the idea – everyone’s a winner – I know in life we all aren’t winners, but it’s a rarity to ever win at those claw games, but kids love them. Makes me feel like they are just a hoax. My husband is looking at possibly making one to help in the business. thanks for the idea, and notes!

We’re so happy you enjoyed it. If you plan to build one hopefully you won’t make the same mistakes we did. Post 9 we’ll have all the 100 things that went wrong in Maker Faire. With all the dust and wear we had to repair a lot of equipment on the fly.

hey
i need help ! cause im also doing this project but a small one so the engine n thats are small. and mostly my question is how the Arduino really works? is it possible to just the motors, joystick and button? andi also want to make one button to pick up the item(prize) drop it off to the box? im all good with body/frame and thats just really need help with board/ electronic/circuit etc : (